How Rare And Beautiful It Is (To Even Exist)
by DarkNymfa
Summary: Tucker watched the crowd mill below him. Watched the family—Danny's family—talk about their shared history, about the past of their family. So he grinned at Sam and Danny, on either side of him, and they thought back of their shared past. Of how they formed their own perfect little family, through their shared experiences, good and bad. (Phandom Bingo 2019)


So, yeah. I wrote this for the Phandom bingo event (Phango19). I was kind of playing around with combining as many prompts into one fic as I could manage without throwing off the story, and, uh. I did all of them. So, if you're not familiar with the bingo and it's board, check it out on the phandombingo Tumblr. Tons of content warnings because of that: major character death, dissection, ghost hunger... the whole angst package. As a general note, though, the tone will be mostly light: even when bad stuff happens, there will be plenty of comforting to fix it. I just... I can't explain how convoluted this AU (and the story) is, but it should be paced in a way that makes it... not read like a mess, I guess. Who knows.

Title is from Saturn by Sleeping At Last. Which, yes, I picked it because the song title is space related, shhh. I considered _so many _of the lines in that song, but I liked this one best for the title. I also considered the lines "You taught me the courage of the stars" and "How light carries on (even after death)", but this is the one I settled on.

Also I wrote this in like, 3 days. Waited too long and had to scramble to finish this before the deadline, so, uh. I haven't proofread it. Not much, at least. Sorry!

* * *

Tucker stretched himself languidly, shimmering tail lazily swishing through the air. Even here, in the gravity-heavy atmosphere of Earth, he could stay afloat without it.

Yawning, he nestled his head on his folded arms, peering over the banister he was leaning on. Below him, human bustled around, the soft noise of conversation filling the air. The crowd mostly consisted of adults, but Tucker's sharp eyes spotted a few children running around among them.

He was drawn out of his inspection by the rustle of cloth next to him. Looking up, he met Danny's bright eyes, the boy leaping up to sit on top of the banister.

"Hey," the boy greeted Tucker. "You doing alright?"

Tucker snorted dismissively. "Shouldn't I be asking you? It's your family reunion, man."

"Eh." Danny shrugged, turning to look down as well. The heels of his shoes beat against the side of the rail. They made no noise. "They're fine without me. But you clearly aren't, so. What's up?"

"Nothing, nothing." Tucker shook his head, glancing at the crowd so he wouldn't have to look at Danny. "It's just… I dunno."

"Eloquent," Sam huffed as she stepped up next to them. She jumped onto the railing as well, straddling it, with one leg on each side. "Come on Tuck, just tell us."

He sighed, but couldn't stop the fond smile that appeared on his face. Even though he looked forward, he knew that the other two could see it. "I just… Watching that whole thing downstairs, it's just… making me nostalgic, I guess."

"Nostalgic?" Danny echoed thoughtfully. "For what? Your own family?"

"In a way." Tucker turned his head slightly to wink at Danny. "I meant you two, dumbass. It's making me nostalgic for _our_ family."

"_Oh_. Fair enough." Danny looked down, and Tucker followed his eyes to the massive bulk of Jack Fenton. The other boy sighed. "Me too, I guess, now that I'm thinking about it."

"Yeah." Sam's fingers rattled on the metal railing, the sound easily swallowed by the noise of the crowd below. "It's… been a while, huh? Good old times."

Tucker snorted. "Good for who? Because I seem to remember a lot of frustration."

"Nah," Danny denied, waving a hand as if he were swatting away the suggestion. "No frustration, just excitement. I think it went like…"

* * *

"This makes absolutely no sense," Danny complained, throwing a hand towards the table. "There's absolutely no reason why this wouldn't work!"

Somewhere behind him Sam hummed. A crinkle like she flipped a page in a book.

"And you're not even listening, are you?" he asked, rolling his eyes. "Might as well be talking to a wall. Or Jazz."

"I _am_ listening. You've just been complaining about your parents' Portal the whole time, Danny." Sam clicked her tongue, then flipped another page. "Have you considered the possibility that it doesn't work because ghosts aren't real?"

"No, because they _are_ real." He shook his head, stepping away from the blueprint. There was nothing wrong with it, so something about the actual machine must be wrong. "And they come from this kickass alternate dimension that's like _space_, except even more goth."

She snorted. "Why are you even trying to fix this up yourself, again? Can't you just wait for your parents to fix it? They _are_ the experts, after all."

"I know plenty," he assured her, stepping closer to the giant metal arch of the Portal. "Besides, if I fix this, the Guys in White would be _crazy_ not to offer me an internship. No top grades required, just actually _useful_ knowledge!"

"I think your sister got into your head, Danny. Who's worrying about internships when they're _fourteen_?"

"Says the girl working at the Nasty Burger," he quipped back, flipping the on/off switch on the Portal. The soft hum of electricity faded as it turned off. There, now he could inspect it _without_ the risk of electrocution.

"There's a difference between worrying about genuine internship, and working a temp job at a fast-food chain." She scoffed, and a loud thump sounded as she closed the book. "Besides, these books don't pay for themselves, and you know how my parents feel about my 'crazy obsession' with plants."

"I know, I know!" he assured her, turning around to face her with his hands raised. "But an internship with the GIW would be _great_ for me. Ghost-centric but away from my parents' craziness? Government-funded, so a cozy stable salary? What more could you want?"

She made a thoughtful face, one finger tapping on her cheek. "I don't know, Danny. Are you even allowed to wear that much white as a goth?"

"Are _you_ even allowed to work at the Nasty Burger while you're a vegan?" he countered, laughing.

"Working at the Nasty Burger doesn't involve eating _or_ wearing meat, you know." She stepped a little closer to the Portal, watching as he inspected the electronics inside it.

"And wearing white isn't actually against the goth rules." He frowned, flipping the panel closed again. Everything seemed fine inside as well. Why didn't it work? "White is like, neo-goth. The color of… bones, and, uh. Cold."

Sam burst into laughter, and Danny started as well, her laugh working infectiously. He wandered back out of the Portal, towards her, pushing the internal on/off button as he passed it.

"But come on, Sam, let's be real. If my choices for studying space ghosts is limited to the GIW or my parents, who do_ you_ think pose a more goth option?" he asked, pausing next to the Portal's control panel. "I would take white over their bright jumpsuits any day."

"Fair enough, fair enough." She shook her head, wiping away a stray tear. "Have you figured out why the Portal isn't working?"

"No." He sighed, checking the settings on the control panel. Nope, all fine as well. "I don't get it! Why doesn't it work?"

"Maybe," she said, slowly, heavily. "Maybe, Danny, it doesn't work because _ghosts aren't real_."

"Nah." He waved a dismissive hand. "You know what, I'm just gonna try turning it on again. That's what you always do with malfunctioning tech, right?"

"There's no way that that'll work, but go for it." She leaned on the console next to him, crossing her arms. "I want to see this."

He tsk'd. "You just have no respect for my genius."

And before she could argue back, he flipped the switch, turning the Portal back on.

Electricity lanced over the surface of the tunnel, green sparks flying through the arch.

"Uh," Danny said, backing up a step. And then another.

Actually, this thing looked way too dangerous to be this close to. He backed up even further, dragging Sam along with him.

"I can't believe that turning it off and then back on worked," she hissed, eyes locked on the Portal. "Fuck, does that mean ghosts are really real?"

"Well, we're gonna find out, won't we?"

Green lightning continued to flow into the Portal, but it didn't extend beyond the metal arch of its frame. It flowed around the edge, forming something that almost looked like a smooth surface, like it was held back by an invisible barrier. But it wasn't static; it swirled, various shades of green twisting across the surface. Occasionally, Danny could swear he could peer through them, into the starry black beyond the Portal's surface.

Then the surface stirred, shifting like it was bunching up, like someone was pressing against it-

and then the Portal's surface split entirely, opening up to let a ghost pass through.

"Oh, fuck," Sam swore, bumping up against Danny. "I can't believe that there's an actual ghost in your basement."

Danny wanted to snark back, but… he was too busy looking at the ghost.

The first actual ghost sighting in history. The first reliable sighting, at least. There were plenty of stories, rumors, supposed sightings.

It looked… well, like he figured a ghost would look like. Humanoid, mostly. Dark skin, but with short-cropped white hair. Golden irises that glowed, almost imperceptibly in the bright light of the lab. Fin-like ears, and webbed hands, and a large fin on its back. Its lower body was long, clad in dark scales that shimmered like they contained a universe-worth of stars, ending in another fin.

The ghost looked at him, then Sam, then him again. It looked… uncertain. Shy, almost.

"Uh," it finally muttered, its tail swishing around uncertainly. "Hi?"

"Hey," Danny breathed back, eyes still wandering over the ghost. Yes, this definitely served as confirmation that ghosts looked like mermaids. Or, more accurately, mermaids looked like ghosts. Some sailors must've seen ghosts, and believed them to be living creatures.

The ghost frowned, clearly wary. If the Ghost Zone was anything like the stories, Danny couldn't blame it. Or him, because he was pretty sure the ghost was male.

"Sorry," he said, stepping forward slightly. If the ghost was hostile, he would've attacked ages ago. "We're being a little rude, huh? I'm Danny, and this is Sam."

"Oh, um." The ghost shrugged. "It's fine, I guess? I'm Tucker."

"Well, nice to meet you, anyway." Danny grinned at the ghost, disarmingly. "Welcome to the Fenton home, completely with steel-plated basement. Y'know, for all your inventing needs."

"Right…" Tucker took his eyes away from the two of them, slowly sweeping them through the room. As he did so, Danny could see him growing increasingly wide-eyed. "Oh, you weren't kidding."

Sam snorted. "Yeah, no. His parents are crazy inventors, and Danny messes with it too, sometimes."

He shrugged, not that Tucker could see it. The ghost had turned far enough that Danny could see the full length of his spinal fin. It, too, sparkled like it contained an entire galaxy. "Only the ghost-related stuff."

"Like what?" Tucker asked, twisting so he could look at them over his shoulder. His tail carved a path through the air effortlessly. "What does 'ghost-related tech' even include?"

"Uh, well." He rubbed the back of his neck, then figured he might as well tell Tucker. Maybe if he taught the ghost a little about humans, Tucker would teach him some about ghosts. "This, for example, is supposed to be a ghost tracker. So if I turn it on…"

The screen lit up, a bright dot showing up right where Tucker was located. "See?"

"Oh, wow." Tucker scooped the invention out of Danny's hands before he could even try to stop the ghost. "Dude, that's so cool!"

"I mean, I didn't make it!" he quickly said, unwilling to claim full credit. "I know how it works, but my parents made it, not me."

"Well, it's still really neat." Tucker's bright golden eyes settled back on Danny, and he grinned. His teeth were sharp and pointed. "Is that why a portal formed right to this place? Because you guys made some kind of machine that makes them?"

Sam snorted, drawing Tucker's attention back to her. She gestured over at the Fenton Portal. "Something like that, yeah."

Impossibly, Tucker grew even more wide-eyed. He darted over to the Portal with a few quick strokes of his tail, reverently running his hands over the metal arch. "_Wow_."

"Impressive, right?" Danny followed Tucker to the Portal, but didn't quite close the distance. "It's my parents' greatest work. They built the prototype in college, but it was way smaller. After it blew up and almost injured their friend they shelved it for a while, but they never really let it go."

"It's amazing," Tucker whispered, voice full of awe. His tail moved slowly, like he was mesmerized. "I mean, _damn_."

Then, suddenly, bright light filled the lab.

When Danny's sight returned to him, he quickly swept through the entire lab with his eyes. Looking for disturbances, possible causes. Everything was the same. Everything but…

"Dude," Tucker said, quietly, looking at his legs.

His _legs_, which he hadn't had before the flash.

Instead of a long, fish-like tail, Tucker now had _legs_. His eyes were still bright and golden like before, but were now hidden behind thick-rimmed glasses. His ears—and hair—were now covered by a strange hat, almost beret-like in nature, but with flat spikes point backwards over his ears. He wore a strange outfit, now, with massive pauldrons on his shoulders, and thick bracers on his lower arms. The whole outfit was faint yellow, but circuitry-like lines ran over it, their color a deep golden like Tucker's eyes. And, to top it off, on his chest he wore a logo: a golden circle with a T in the middle, the inside filled with black.

"What happened?" Sam asked, voice loud in the quiet of the lab. "I didn't know ghosts could do… whatever that was!"

"He… I think he shifted obsessions." Danny licked his lips, not looking away from Tucker. "How're you feeling?"

"I don't know," Tucker admitted, shifting his eyes towards Danny. "I mean, that's- _I_ didn't know I could do that! I didn't know ghosts could change obsessions! What am I gonna do now?!"

"Shh, calm down." Danny held out his hands, lowering his voice into a hush. "What do you mean, 'what are you gonna do now'? What's wrong with shifting your obsession?"

But Tucker shook his head aggravatedly. "I _need_ my space obsession! Do you think I had that for fun? No!"

"Why else would you have it?" Danny asked, feeling dread coil heavy in his stomach. "Isn't that the point of an obsession? That it's something you're interested in?"

Tucker snorted, dry and without amusement. "Yeah, as much as one can be considered interested in _survival_. The Ghost Zone is harsh, man. No way you can survive there without a space obsession."

"Oh." Danny lowered his hands a little, but Tucker seemed to calm down a little, now that he'd told them. "Well, maybe you can… stay here, until you figure it out? Or dip in and out, I guess. Surely your core wouldn't have switched obsessions if it would kill you?"

"Well, maybe." Tucker shrugged listlessly. "I guess I might as well stay here, check out this amazing tech while I still can."

"That's the spirit," Danny said, winking at the ghost. While Tucker was still processing it, Sam groaned.

"I can't believe you made a stupid pun _now_, Danny."

As Tucker started laughing, Danny shot her a shit-eating grin. "Sam, you of all people should know that I'm gonna _die_ telling stupid puns."

* * *

"Oh yeah," Sam said, her voice light. "I totally forgot about how freaked out Tucker was by that obsession shifting."

He huffed. "Well, wouldn't you be? Just because we know now that ghosts can have two obsessions doesn't mean we did _then_. All I knew was that I had just gone and lost my only defense against the Ghost Zone!"

"Would it be mean to say that I'm glad that it happened?" Danny ran a hand through his hair, the locks messy as always. "Not the… you being upset, of course. But, well. It _did_ kind of force you to stick with us."

"No, I'm glad it happened as well." Tucker smiled, feeling his whole face softening in the process. "As upsetting as it was, I can't imagine giving all of this up. My life would be so shitty without you two."

"Aww." Sam leaned down, ruffling his short hair. "You're such a sap, Tuck. We love you as well."

"Even after the Pokemon mishap," Danny joked, jostling him. "Really, that should've told you that you would never get rid of us ever again."

Tucker rolled his eyes, his tail cleaving through the air. "You're never going to drop that, huh?"

"Definitely not." Danny grinned down at him, dodging Tucker's badly aimed swipe. "I mean, honestly, you should've seen that coming."

"It _was_ pretty fun, though." Sam's fingers tapped out a beat on the railing she sat on. "Well, when we figured out that we weren't stuck, at least."

* * *

Sam woke up feeling groggy and confused. Not in pain, at least, but still. She didn't recognize the field she laid in, or the clothes she wore now. Next to her laid Danny and Tucker, both still passed out.

Honestly, she didn't even _know_ ghosts could be knocked out, but here they were.

She slowly inspected the clothes she wore. A jacket of sorts in her preferred colors, white and purple, of some sort of synthetic material. Water-proof, probably. Jean shorts. Purple and white sneakers. Not too shabby, if one ignored the fact that this _wasn't what she had been wearing_. Someone had swapped her clothes for these ones.

Instead of lingering on that thought, she pulled her shoulder bag to the front so she could riffle through its contents. It didn't look too special, really. White, with a half-circle on it in purple.

No, it were the content that really intrigued Sam.

She had just wrapped a hand around one of those intriguing objects when Danny groaned next to her, apparently waking up as well. The boy sat up, rubbing one hand over his eyes before pausing.

"What the hell am I wearing?"

Sam followed his gaze. A black and red jacket and sneakers, black jeans, a cap with a Pokeball logo on it.

"Something related to this, I bet," she said, tossing him the object she had just grabbed.

Danny easily caught the orb, twisting his hand to look at it. Then he looked back at her. "You're joking, right?"

"Does this look like a joke?" She shook her head, taking another Pokeball out of the bag. "I bet you've got some in that backpack, too."

"Huh?" He looked behind him. "Oh, I completely missed that. Should I wake up Tucker too?"

"I say we wait a little longer, see if he wakes up on his own. He doesn't know a lot about Pokemon anyway, so he probably won't be any help anyway."

"Right, right." Danny rolled the Pokeball back to her, then starting looking through his own bag. "Man, there's all kinds of early-game stuff in here. Pokeballs, Potions, a couple of Antidotes…"

"Uh huh." She plucked a bit of grass so she could look at it more closely. Hmm… Not very enlightening. "Do you think there's actual Pokemon in this field?"

"Pokemon aren't real," Danny pointed out, before realizing what he said. After a brief pause, he added, "Although, I guess there's a decent chance."

"Cool. In that case," she got up and dusted off her knees, "I'm gonna go look for either A) a Pokemon weak enough for me to catch, or B) a plant I recognize, so I can figure out where we are."

"Don't go too far, please?" Danny rubbed the back of his neck, glancing down at Tucker. "I'll stay here with Tuck, but I'll try to keep an eye on you if I can."

She nodded, shooting him a reassuring smile. "Of course, Danny. I'm not gonna let myself get mauled by wild Pokemon without inflicting the same on you two."

Danny blanched. "Yeah, alright, thanks. Try to avoid that, please."

"I'll try!" She whirled around, speeding away before he could reply.

The field was large, but not unending. Trees littered the space, even forming into a treeline on the horizon. Rather than go towards the forest, she steered towards a smaller cluster of trees. Who knew what was hiding in the shadows of the woods?

She crouched next to the trees, reaching out towards a puff of purple. But just before she could take hold of it, it twitched away.

The grass rustled, then parted, and Sam found herself staring into two large green eyes.

"Prr?" the purple feline said, its pointed ears twitching.

"Uh, hi," she answered, feeling a little silly. She recognized the small Pokemon, of course. Purrloin was a familiar face, and probably not too threatening, since they were typically encountered in the early game. "Good kitty?"

"Prr," the cat repeated, although it didn't sound as questioning this time. It rubbed its head against her palm, so she scritched it behind its ears in return.

"You're pretty affectionate, huh?" She laughed, blindly digging through her bag with the other hand. Finally she managed to wrap her fingers around one of the metal balls in her bag, and she pulled it out.

She held it out to the Purrloin, presenting it. "Here. I don't want to trap you against your will, but… it would be really good to have a Pokemon to count on, I think."

It cocked its head at her, tail twitching. Sam would've likened the movement to 'thoughtful', but she wasn't sure how much body language ghosts and cats shared.

Purrloin lifted a paw, then, carefully placing it on the button of the Pokeball. It burst into red light, retreating into the ball. The button blinked green immediately, making a satisfying clicking noise.

She pressed the button immediately, releasing it again. "Thanks… Lily?"

Lily prr'd again, rubbing her head against Sam's thigh. She figured it was as much of a sign of approval as she was gonna get, and turned back to the plants she was _supposed_ to be looking at.

Nothing she recognized, again. The plants looked normal enough, but when inspected close enough, they differed from all similar plants she knew. Must be some kind of… special Pokemon-world equivalents, or something.

The presence of Lily was proof enough that they weren't somewhere near Amity, anyway. And the fact that the world was actually _livable_ proved that this wasn't the Ghost Zone, either.

She sighed, then picked up Lily. The Purrloin made an inquisitive noise but didn't fight back. When she had straightened up all the way, Lily clambered out of her arms and onto her shoulders, sprawling out.

"Oh, I see how it is," she said, laughing a little. "You're my Pikachu, huh?"

"Prr," Lily said, yawning widely. "Luhn."

"Uh huh." Sam patted some sand off of her knees, then started picking her way back to Danny again. "As long as you refrain from doing that if you evolve."

"Sam?" Danny called from a little further, and she focused back onto him. "Can you come, please?"

"Coming!" she shouted back, increasing her pace. She hadn't gone all that far, nothing could've happened, right?

When she came into the clearing, she saw no immediate problem. Tucker had woken up as well, a red beret askew on his head and his yellow jacket rumpled. His eyes had retained their golden coloration, although their glow was fainter than usual.

"What's wrong?" she asked, the question echoed by a "prr" from Lily.

"Nothing is _wrong_," Tucker quickly assured her, ducking when Danny glared at him. "Just, um. Danny is a little angry at me."

"Why?" She asked before the sentence had truly processed. When it did, she added, quickly, "Are you the reason why we're here?"

Tucker laughed, softly, holding up his hands like they could protect him from her wrath. "Uh, surprise?"

"What did you do?!" she snapped at him, restraining herself monumentally. She would've kicked him, but that would've thrown off Lily. "Tucker!"

"Sorry! It's not permanent! I thought you guys would've liked it!"

Danny sighed, shaking his head. "Tucker, if you had asked us, we _would_ have loved this. But you can't just spring this on someone."

"Seriously, what did you _do_?" she asked, throwing herself down on the ground. Lily meowed miserably, but dug nails into Sam's jacket to stay on. "I didn't know ghosts could transport people to different dimensions!"

"I didn't." Tucker shrugged at her sharp look. "So, you know how my secondary obsession is tech? I, uh, may have discovered a new power related to it. So I wanted to test it a little, and you guys were teaching me about Pokemon, so…"

"So you took us into a Pokemon game," she said slowly, pulling Lily off of her shoulders so she could pet the cat. "Because you figured we would enjoy it."

"Yeah!" Tucker nodded, glad they were catching on. "I mean, I didn't think we would pass out, but still! This is fun, right?"

"And you're sure you can take us out again?" she asked, just to be sure. "This only lasts as long as you want it to?"

"Definitely."

"Then, yeah." She grinned, patting Lily. "Yeah, this is definitely very cool."

Danny huffed, pretend annoyed. "And because you didn't bother telling us, you let Sam get a head start. See, she already has a Pokemon caught!"

"Yeah, suck it, guys!" She held up Lily, who prr'd happily. "Lily is gonna kick all your asses!"

"Aren't lilies toxic to plants?" Danny frowned. "Seems a little dark to name a cat after them."

"Purrloin is a dark type, smartass." She grinned. "And it's short for Lilith, too."

"Ooh, that's clever." Tucker rolled onto his feet, only stumbling a little. He really _had_ gotten better at controlling them. "Come on Danny, race you!"

Tucker already sped off before Danny could even get up. "Cheater!" he called after the ghost, unable to hold back his laugh.

* * *

"We should go back sometime." Danny cocked his head, making a hopeless attempt at straightening his hair. "It would be nice to see our Pokemon again."

"You just want an opportunity to go look for more Dark types." Tucker grinned, ignoring Danny's pout. "I don't see why not, dude. We got plenty of time."

"We'll have to figure out a way to keep the DS charged in the GZ, though," Sam pointed out. "Wouldn't want to run it out of electricity, and we don't want a repeat of last time a ghost stayed out of the Zone too long."

He rolled his eyes, huffing petulantly. "It wouldn't have gotten so bad if you guys hadn't tried to find a solution to a non-existent problem."

"Oh, there _so_ was a problem we were fixing," Sam bit back. "We all know how dangerous the Ghost Zone was to you. Any time you could spend outside it was far safer than sending you back, even with Danny's parents hunting you."

"You two were still responsible for how much of a mess it ended up becoming, though!" he insisted, tail lashing agitatedly.

"Any problems we might've caused we fixed too." She crossed her arms, staring him down. "But I suppose that you might've forgotten about that, so why don't we just remind you?"

* * *

Tucker rolled onto his back, his tail listlessly swishing through the air. "Is it gonna take much longer? I'm starving, man."

"Chill, dude. Do you know how long it took for us to get this plant?" Sam snapped back, not looking away from the plant in question. She carefully removed a few more leaves, then nodded to Danny, who lowered the glass case back over the plant. "See, that didn't take that long, did it?"

"Feels like forever." Tucker rolled into a sitting position, his tail hanging off of the lab table. He grimaced as he saw the plate Sam was carrying. "Ah, come on. Are you really gonna make me eat leaves?"

"Tuck, just trust us." Danny stepped up too, having finished locking the plant back up. It was fidgety, and needed the stable environment that they had created inside the glass cage. "Sam and I combined our expertise _just_ so we could find this plant for you. Would you rather go back to the Zone all the time?"

"No," Tucker grumbled, reaching out for the plate. He sniffed it cautiously, then relaxed. "Huh, that doesn't smell so bad."

"See? Told you that it would be fine." Sam cocked an eyebrow at him, crossing her arms. "Now please don't make all our work for nothing and just _eat it_, Tucker."

"Alright, alright." He held up his free arm defensively, then swooped down to grab one of the leaves. He hesitated for a moment, then shoved the whole thing into his mouth.

He chewed a little, then, without swallowing, said, "Hey, that's pretty… hmm…"

"Good?" Danny asked, then nodded as Tucker visibly brightened. "Wow, yeah, I guess that really did the trick. Go, team Fenton and Manson! Expert ghost nutritionists!"

She laughed, both at Danny's antics and Tucker's expression. "Where did you even learn that word? Nutritionist?"

"Oh, please." He puffed out his chest, looking mightily offended. "Sam, you of all people should know that I am far smarter than people think."

"Doesn't mean that I think you-"

A crash interrupted her, and both their heads snapped towards the source. Tucker floated above the table, a few of the leaves sticking out of his mouth. Below him, the shattered remains of the plate laid on the ground.

"_Tucker_," Danny groaned, complaintively. "Now I'm going to have to explain to my parents why one of their plates broke."

Tucker's eyes slid over to Danny. The irises glowed far more brightly than normal, forming a bright ring around his dilated pupils. He didn't blink.

"Oh," she said, quietly, nudging Danny. "I think that that might've been too much."

"Maybe," Danny agreed, keeping his eyes on Tucker as well. "Hey, Tuck? How're you feeling, buddy?"

Tucker blinked once, exceedingly slowly. He cocked his head.

Then he licked his lips and said, "Hungry."

"Still?" she asked, eyes automatically darting down to the shattered plate. "Didn't you eat everything?"

"Mmm," Tucker replied, as his eyes left her and Danny to wander around the room instead. "Not food."

"Not food? Are you really gonna start about it being plant-based instead of meat?" She balled her fists, anger bubbling up. Shouldn't he have _more_ respect for life, as a ghost? Not wish death upon animals, as someone who had experienced it himself?

Danny's hand on her arm snapped her out of her anger, and she met his calm blue eyes. "I think the plant wasn't ghost friendly because it was _food_, Sam. Look at him."

She thought back of Tucker's dilated eyes, then nodded at Danny. Turning back to Tucker, she realized that he had flown off while she was distracted. He was now hovering over a different table, staring at some of the supplies Danny's parents had left lingering around.

"He looks like he's drugged," she said to Danny, watching Tucker float about. "God dammit, what was that plant? Catnip, but for ghosts?"

Danny laughed humorlessly. "Ghost nip? Looks like it, huh. Guess we'll have to lure him into the GZ so he can recharge the usual way."

"Won't that be dangerous to him, though?" She stared at Tucker, who still seemed mesmerized by the abandoned experiment. "The Zone is already dangerous enough while he's _not_ drugged out of his mind."

"I guess you have a point. We'll just have to wait it out, then, and-"

Another crash sounded through the lab. Tucker had suddenly launched himself at the lab table, and had knocked off most of the stuff on it in the process. In his hands, he held a small glass vial, filled with something bright green. Ectoplasm, probably.

Tucker looked elated, and as Sam watched, he suddenly put the vial to his lips and _chugged it_.

"Oh, yuck," Danny said, shivering. "Tucker, dude, who knows where that has been!"

"Hungry," was all Tucker had to say in response, licking his lips. Looking slightly more energized, he started looking around the room.

"Shit," she told Danny, grabbing his arm. "He's trying to make up for the lack of ambient energy by eating ectoplasm. We need to get him into the Zone before-"

Tucker launched himself at a cabinet, which was thankfully heavy enough to remain standing when the ghost knocked into it. Instead of phasing through the glass doors, Tucker punched them, shattering the pane of glass.

"Before he does much more damage? Good idea, Sam." Danny stepped forward, then paused, then stepped back. "How do we do that?"

"Uhh…" Well, this was a bad moment to realize they both had absolutely no experience handling ghosts. Well, besides Tucker, who normally didn't require any special handling. "Well, uh. Looks like he's either too weak or too drugged-up to remember he can turn intangible, so…"

"So we just grab him and bodily drag him away? Sounds like a plan." Danny met her eyes, nodding sharply. "On three?"

"On three," she agreed. They both turned to look at Tucker.

"One," Danny counted.

"Two," she followed.

"Three!" they shouted in sync, storming towards their unsuspecting victim.

Tucker flailed as four hands suddenly grabbed onto him, but as predicted, didn't turn intangible. Dragging him over to the Portal was still quite a challenge, thanks to his superhuman strength and his _very annoying_ tail, but in the end the two of them managed it.

Danny hit the 'close doors' button on the Portal, locking it until one of the Fentons unlocked it again.

"Phew," he said, wiping some sweat off of his forehead. "Now let's hope that Dad leaves it locked long enough for the ghost nip to wear off."

"We're really gonna call it that, huh?" She shook her head. "Ah, whatever. Let's just never talk of this ever again."

"Amen."

* * *

"And a poor job you guys did of that," Tucker complained, without heat. "Really did a fantastic job of never mentioning it ever again, huh?"

"Oh, shut up." Danny swatted at him, but Tucker ducked his head and it missed. "Don't pretend you're some kind of perfect angel."

"At least _I_ didn't intern at ghost butchers' central, man." Tucker rolled his eyes, but settled his head back onto his arms. "Seriously, that was some messed up shit."

"Well, how was I supposed to know!" Danny darted a glance downwards, but no one seemed to have noticed his outburst. Still, he continued more quietly. "And I quit when I found out, didn't I?"

* * *

Danny tugged rubber gloves on over his black cloth gloves, internally rolling his eyes at the stupidity. Couldn't they just put on specialized lab gear, instead of mandating their usual suits, and getting pissy when any dirt got on them?

"Ready, Intern F?" the operative in front of him asked, his sunglasses making it impossible to read his expression. "Or are you gonna dilly-dally much longer?"

"Just wanted to make sure I'm covered up properly," Danny assured him, stamping down on his snark. He just had to put up with all of this for a little longer. His achievements so far had gotten him an internship with the GIW despite his youth. Now he just needed to prove himself.

Oh, he so wanted this job. The ghosts, the space-ness of the Ghost Zone… It really _was_ a perfect fit for him.

"Hm. Acceptable." O nodded once, shortly, before gesturing at the lab table. "Prepare the required tools, Intern F. I'll have the ghost send in."

"Uh, yeah. Right." Danny wandered over to the indicted table, studying the tools spread out on the side table. Most of the stuff looked pretty generic—scalpels and the such. Some were clearly specialized, but Danny was sure he could figure out what they were used for if he had to. But he didn't think he would. Ghosts were pretty simple, anatomy-wise, or so he had learned from Tucker. Tons of ghosts died, and while they broke down quickly in the Ghost Zone, it wouldn't be impossible to drag one through a Portal and preserve it for studying.

He heard a door whoosh open, and automatically looked up from the table. In came two more agents, carrying a glass case between them. Inside the case laid the ghost. Pretty small, covered in ecto-green fur, with two front legs and a trailing tail like most ghosts.

The agents put the cage down on the table, then unlatched it, lifting the small ghost out. As it uncurled, Danny realized that it was, or had been, a dog. A rounded dog-like face, with pawed front legs. His heart clenched, but he didn't let it show on his face. The GIW had to be hard. And it was too late for the dog, anyway. It had died, and then it had died again. Hopefully it would rest easy now, wherever it went after ghost death.

The two agents lifted the now-empty cage up again, nodded at Agent O, and left the room. Danny stepped in closer to watch the ghost. From this close, he could see that it wore a collar: black, with silver spikes, and a round tag on the front. He almost reached out to read it, but stopped himself.

"Ready?" O asked, now also next to the table. "You will be leading this experiment, Intern F, remember?"

"I know, I know." He pulled the table with tools a little closer. It was just a dissection. The ghost was already dead. They were going to use it to learn more. It was okay. It was fine. "I know what I'm doing, sir."

"Well, get a move on, then." O huffed, clearly impatient. "I don't have all day, kid."

Danny resisted the urge to roll his eyes, reaching to grab a scalpel. Then he turned to the small ghost, ignoring the way his heart clenched. He lifted his knife over the ghost's still chest, carefully placing the tip. He wondered if it felt cold to the ghost, despite its low temperature.

"Fenton," O growled.

He pressed down, the knife sliding through the ghost's ectoplasm like a warm knife through butter. He moved it easily, steadily, carving the typical Y shape. He halted, halfway through the Y, knowing nothing else laid beyond it, but O urged him to continue, so he did.

The loose flaps of outer ectoplasm were folded away and pinned down, revealing the ectoplasm-rich insides of the ghost. And there, in the center of its chest, laid its core. The only organ a ghost possessed.

As Danny watched, it twitched, pulsing faintly.

Ice filled Danny's stomach. It felt like his heart stopped as he stared at the ghost's open chest. The core laid there, plainly visible.

It pulsed again.

The ghost wasn't dead.

"What the fuck," he said, out loud, before he really knew it. "It's still alive."

Agent O snorted. "It's a ghost, kid. Ghosts aren't alive."

"You knew?" Danny whirled around, fist clenching around the scalpel. "What the fuck! This ghost is still alive, man!"

"No ghost is alive. It's kind of a prerequisite for being a ghost." O stared at him, and Danny got the distinct feeling the man just rolled his eyes at him. "Now finish the dissection, Intern."

"No." Danny shook his head, muscles stiff with tension. "No. I thought we were going to dissect a dead ghost. This one still has life in its core. It's not dead yet. I don't know why it's not moving, but it's still alive. I'm here for dissection, not vivisection. That's fucked up."

"You're an idiot," O snapped back. "It's a _ghost_. It's already dead. It can't feel, it can't care. And neither should you. We even paralyzed it for you, so it stayed nice and still. You gonna throw this opportunity away, huh?"

Danny glanced back at the ghost. It laid there, still, its chest split open. Its core twitched weakly.

One eye had opened, the empty red orb staring straight at him. Begging him, almost.

He licked his lips, turned back to O, and nodded. "Fuck yeah. I'm not gonna work with a bunch of government jack-offs who can't even respect the innocent dead."

The scalpel clattered back onto the table, and Danny quickly unpinned the loose skin. He pressed it together, gently, hoping that the ghost's natural healing would kick in. It did, the flaps knitting together. Slower than usual, he thought, but it would do for now.

"What do you think you're doing?" O asked, low. "Just because you're quitting-"

"Fuck you. You guys let me work on him in whatever way I wanted. So this is what I'm gonna do with him." He glared at O, wrapping a protective arm around the ghost. "You would've been fine with me permanently destroying him, too. What difference does it make if I take him out of the facility altogether?"

"A destabilized ghost can't hurt anyone anymore. A loose ghost _can_." O's head shifted a little, like he was turning to look at the ghost in Danny's arms instead. "But I bet that that little critter won't survive what you did to it anyway. Go, Fenton. I'll make sure everyone knows how you feel about ectoplasmic abominations."

Danny snorted humorlessly. "Yeah, fucking _fine_, whatever. Have fun with that."

And shaking his head, he walked out of the door, ignoring the way ectoplasm was staining his suit.

He never liked white anyway.

* * *

"And then Cujo made a full recovery, thanks to us." Sam knocked the back of her shoes against the railing, rattling the glass. "And everything was good, until we discovered that Cujo used to belong to Axion Labs, who put him down. Which led to a whole scandal, and Axion Labs were forced to lay off a ton of people because they lost so much money."

"Right…" Danny made a face. "I, uh, didn't intend for that to happen. At least Valerie didn't know that I was responsible for that. She would've fucking killed me back then."

"Valerie is terrifying," Tucker easily agreed, smiling. "You're lucky she mellowed out over time."

"I feel sorry for whoever dares to mess with her and Dani's kid." Sam smiled wickedly. "They really don't know what they're getting into. That kid is gonna have the scariest family around. Dani and Val as the parents, Jack and Maddie _and_ Damon as the grandparents? And then there's us and Jazz as the aunts and uncles."

"A glass to whoever dares to hurt that little tyke," Danny said, laughing, as he raised an empty hand. "May they get their ass handed to them as royally as Pariah Dark did."

Tucker raised a hand too, then used it to swat at Danny. "Don't think I missed that pun, man."

* * *

Tucker's tail beat a quick tempo through the Ghost Zone's empty atmosphere. He carved a quick path through the void, reaching the Fenton Portal before he knew it. Turning himself invisible, just in case the lab wasn't empty, he darted through the portal.

Lab empty. No Danny or Sam. He would have to go looking, then.

He shot upwards, phasing through several floors, before reaching Danny's. He phased inside, not stopping to knock like he usually would. Oh, thank fuck, there they were.

"Guys, we're in huge trouble," he said, before he had even dropped his invisibility. "The Guys in White woke up the Ghost King."

"Oh, fuck," Danny swore immediately, scrambling up onto his feet. "God dammit, I _told_ them not to mess with the Zone! Idiots!"

"Now what?" Sam closed her book without even marking the page, a true testament of how focused she was. "What's gonna happen next? The Zone will get even more dangerous for you, right?"

"Not just for me." Tucker shook his head, his tail swishing around agitatedly. "Pariah Dark is a danger to everyone in the Zone. He's gonna drive _all_ the ghosts out."

Sam stared, color fading from her face. "They're all gonna come here?"

"Ours is the only stable portal." Danny sighed, heavily. "Fuck. I shouldn't _known_ the GIW wouldn't listen. Jackasses. Now look at what they've done! There's no way we can hold off a mass ghost exodus."

"So we stop it from happening." Sam looked between the two of them, fire in her eyes. "We make sure no ghosts come here."

"We can't close the Portal," Tucker said, dread coiling in his core. They couldn't, not without killing him.

But was his safety worth the safety of everyone else in the town? Hell, the world?

"I know. That's not what I was thinking." Sam got up as well, pacing through the room. "The ghosts want to leave because of Pariah Dark, right? The GIW released him. So we just need to capture him again, and then the ghosts won't go looking for our portal. Yeah?"

Tucker's core stilled in his chest.

"You want _us_ to fight Pariah Dark? Just the three of us?"

There was no way they would survive that. But he also couldn't make them chose between him, and their town.

Danny blew out a noisy breath. "You know what? Fuck it. Let's go raid the Vault, get my parents' equipment so we can survive in the Zone, and go."

"Immediately?" Tucker's head snapped towards Danny. "Right now?"

"Might as well get it over with," the boy said with a shrug that was too casual for the situation. "Either we take him down before any ghosts escape, or…"

"Or the Portal will stay locked. The Speeder has an unlocking mechanism that works from the Zone's side, right? So we can close it when we leave, and no one will be able to leave until we succeed."

'_If_ we succeed', Tucker wanted to say. But he didn't. He couldn't take the other's optimism from them.

They were so fucked.

* * *

"And we totally kicked his ass!" Sam cheered, before throwing a guilty glance to the crowd downstairs. "Sorry. But still, Pariah didn't know who he was dealing with, ha!"

"I still can't believe we won that." Tucker shook his head, laughing softly. "I mean, a ghost and two humans against the _Ghost King_? Whoof."

"I still think you should wear the crown more often," Danny jibed, shoving him a little. "You worked hard for that, man."

"That would be unfair, though. We won it together, it's our shared crown." Then he grinned widely. "Besides, the crown looks so bad on me. I'm all gold, baby!"

"Oh, shut up." Sam kicked him in the side, and he yelped, offended. "Shush, we don't want the parents to spot us. See, they're right below us."

Tucker followed her gaze, and indeed, Maddie and Jack Fenton lingered right below them. They were talking to a burly woman with red hair. Alicia, Tucker thought, Danny's aunt. Standing there right next to Maddie, he could see some familial resemblance.

"Oh, and Aunt Alicia is here too." Danny sighed, a little downtrodden. "Man, it's been ages since I last talked to her. We should go down later, introduce her to the kids."

"Danny, please, we can't let you murder your aunt in cold blood like that." Sam shot him a sharp glare past Tucker, one which Danny easily ignored. "Danny, really. You can go talk to her all you want, and we'll keep an eye on our little brats."

"We gotta wait for the babysitter to drop by anyway." He heaved another sigh, but nodded. "I guess you have a point. What were we talking about, again?"

"Your batshit-insane family?" Tucker suggested lightly. "I mean, no offense dude, but have you ever met your parents?"

Danny laughed, growing more cheery already. "Oh, most definitely. Remember when _you_ first met them, though?"

* * *

"Stop hogging the popcorn, Tuck!" Danny complained, leaning over the back of the couch to try and wrench the bowl out of Tucker's arms. Tucker's fish-like tail was batting him in the side, but gentle enough not to seriously hurt him. "You don't even _need_ to eat!"

"Yeah, but I like it!" Tucker leaned a little further away, most of his upper body off of the couch, his arms stretched away from Danny. "_You_ don't need popcorn to survive, either!"

"Well-" Danny scrambled onto the back of the couch, balanced on his knees. He still couldn't reach the bowl, damn his short arms. "-go fuck yourself!"

Tucker gasped theatrically, then for real when Sam swiped the bowl from his arms.

"Hey!" he protested, making grabby hands at the bowl. "Rude!"

"That'll teach you to share." Holding the bowl with one arm, she make a shooing motion at him. "Now scoot so we can sit, too."

Tuck had just created enough space for Sam to sit down—which she did—when Danny heard the front door open. He froze, still balanced precariously on the back of the couch. The couch, with both Sam and Tucker on it, the ghost's tail easily curled around the girl.

"This isn't what it looks like!" he shouted immediately, over his internal curse-storm. God dammit, they should've been gone all weekend! He was so distracted by his parents, however, that he forgot to keep his balance, and toppled over the backrest and onto the couch itself, landing square on Tucker.

"Oof," the ghost complained, his tail twitching with the shock. "Jesus, dude, what have you been eating?"

"Not enough," his mom immediately chastised, before she seemed to realize what she was doing. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at Tucker.

"Uh, hi?" Tucker phased one hand free from where it was buried beneath Danny, waving at Maddie. "Nice to uh, meet you."

"Wow, you could cut this tension with a knife," Sam said lightly, not flinching when four pairs of eyes turned to her. "There we go, now that the silence is broken, can we please get this over with? Anyone?"

"You're unbelievable." Tucker shoved Danny lightly, wriggling his tail for emphasis. "Dude, can you please get off of me? You're crushing me."

Danny rolled his eyes but did as asked, nimbly landing on his feet. "You're all ectoplasm, there's nothing to crush."

"Rude." Tucker lifted himself upright, swinging his tail over Sam's head so he could sit in an almost human way. "There. Now, I think that I should, uh, head out."

"No, please, stay." Maddie stepped forward, her hands raised slightly, like she was approaching a wary animal. "We… were hoping to talk to you, actually."

"Why?" Tucker asked immediately, his golden eyes narrowed. "So you could catch me off-guard?"

"No, I- We…" she trailed off, glancing over at Jack uncertainly. "We… were mistaken about you."

"And we're sorry about hunting you, kid," Jack added, shrugging his massive shoulders. "Just because you're a ghost, doesn't mean you're all bad."

Danny held up a hand, stopping his parents before they could continue. "Look, this is all really nice and stuff, but I don't trust this sudden heel-face turn. What made you change your minds?"

His parents shared another uncertain look.

"We… When you were younger, you and Sam used to play a lot with anther kid your age. Remember, Danny?"

"Uh… huh?" he said, surprised by the sudden turn in conversation. "I mean, vaguely? Why? That was like, ages ago."

"Oh yeah, I remember being really upset when he stopped showing up," Sam piped up, a thoughtful expression on her face. "My parents were glad, though. They didn't approve of him _or_ Danny."

"Yes, exactly." Maddie nodded, folding her hands together. Her entire posture was stiff and tense. "We… Jack and I, that is, we assumed that he must've just moved away. It happens, you know. A shame that his parents didn't tell us beforehand, but, well. The kid just stopped showing up. What else were we supposed to think?"

"I have a feeling I know where this is heading, and I don't think I like it," Tucker mumbled behind Danny. In perfect sync, he and Sam laid comforting hands on Tucker's shoulders.

"There's no way to be sure, of course," Jack pointed out, looking solemn as well. "Growing up changes one's face, and Tucker might be from anywhere. But…"

"It sounds about right." Tucker ran a hand through his short hair, heaving a sigh. "I knew I liked you guys for a reason, even I couldn't explain it. Should've figured."

"Well, _I_ think that that's really cool." Sam nudged Tucker. "I mean, you went to a completely different world, and not only found your way back to this one, but to me and Danny specifically."

"Yeah, Tuck, that's some 'chosen ones' shit." Danny grinned at Tucker, poking him with his elbow. "Or some sort of star-crossed lovers. _'He died, but became a ghost, then traveled the universe to find his lost friends again!'_"

"Oh, shut up," Tucker huffed, but he couldn't hide the joyful expression on his face. "You guys are such saps. I'm pretty sure that that's against the goth rules, Danny."

"You love it, though." Danny leaned onto Tucker, covering the ghost with as much of his body as possible. "Get smothered with my love, Tuck."

"Noooo," the boy groaned, before Sam leaned in as well. "_Noooooo_!"

The loud rumbling laughter of his dad distracted Danny from his attempts at literally drowning Tucker in love and appreciation, and he looked up at the amused faces of his parents. "What?"

"Nothing, sweetie," his mom assured him, a warm smile on her face. "We'll be down in the lab. Try not to break anything, please?"

"Yes, ma'am!" Tucker's muffled voice sounded from somewhere suspiciously deep in the pillows, and Danny stuck a thumb up in her direction as extra assurance.

* * *

"I still can't believe we actually knew each other when we were young," Tucker admitted, fondness brewing in his core. "Like, what are the chances of that?"

"Pretty low, I'd guess." Sam smiled back, her expression as warm as he felt. "Maybe this was all destined to happen. The first triple rulers of the Ghost Zone, and all that."

"Just blame Clockwork," Danny joked, a grin on his face. "Seems like he has a hand in everything these days."

"He's the ghost of time, I'm pretty sure that that's nothing new." Tucker shook his head. "Well, whatever. I'm glad your parents were so easy about that whole thing, considering what happened after."

"Oh, don't remind me." Danny groaned loudly. "Like, I love her, and I'm glad she's with us now, but I really could've done without that whole mess."

* * *

Danny woke up with a pounding headache, which did not improve when he opened his eyes to the bright lights of the lab.

No, wait.

This wasn't his parents lab.

It looked pretty similar, the steel walls and the lab tables, even the shelving along the walls, packed with ectoplasmic inventions. But it was cleaner, maintained by someone who wasn't Jack _or_ Maddie Fenton, because bless their hearts, they got too caught up with inventing to clean up after themselves.

So then were the fuck was he?

His eye caught on a familiar machine in the far back. The giant metal arch was undeniable, the blast doors that closed the gap between worlds brilliantly clean.

Who on Earth could have built a portal of their own, so similar to his parents'? The only person Danny could think of was Vlad Masters, since they built the Proto Portal together back in college, but he was certain that the man had given up on his interest in ghosts. Almost getting _destroyed_ by an exploding Portal will do that to someone.

Although he supposed that if his parents got over themselves to build a new one, Masters might have done so as well.

The clicking of shoes on the steel floor sounded, and Danny's head snapped towards the source.

"Oh, finally awake, are we?" Masters smirked at Danny, his neat suit off for the lab they were in. "Kept me waiting, boy."

"Excuse me?" Danny burst out before he could consider otherwise. What on Earth was this guy talking about? He tried to jerk towards Masters, but only now realized he was bound to a chair.

How did he not notice that earlier? Good job, Fenton, really showing your intelligence right here. Bleck, the ropes were even glowing an eerie green. Ghost-proof, probably.

"What the fuck do you even want?" he demanded of Masters, slumping down into his chair. He didn't think he could get the ropes loose enough to escape, but he had a laser lipstick in his boot. If he could reach it without Masters noticing, he might be able to cut himself free.

"What do I want? _What do I want_?" Masters huffed aggravatedly, then suddenly straightened, like he refused to let his anger get the best of him. Too late, buddy. "What I want is _you_, silly boy. Finally, proof that ghosts exist! And with that, I will convince your mother that _I_ am the superior ghost hunter, and she will leave that oaf she is married to now."

Danny blinked at Masters.

"What?" he finally settled on, trying to sort through that absolutely nonsensical statement. "What the fuck are you even talking about? Those were like, three different incredibly absurd statements rolled into one."

"_You_," Masters hissed, "are my proof that ghosts exist! I don't know why my clones failed, but it doesn't matter, because I have _you_ now!"

"Fuckin' excuse me?" Danny jerked back, then forced himself to slump down again, unwilling to lose the progress he was making towards his weapon. "What do you mean, clones? You tried to clone me? Why?! I'm not even a fucking ghost!"

"Oh, like I would believe such a blatant lie." Masters rolled his eyes, looking down upon Danny like he really believed himself to be right. "It's clear as day to anybody who spends enough time watching you."

"Which you haven't done-" Danny tried, but Masters interrupted him before he finished his sentence.

"Which is why I bought my intel from a reliable source," the man steamrolled on, ignoring Danny like he didn't even exist. "Such a pleasant young man, and you didn't even notice him. An excellent spy, I must say."

Danny blinked at him for a moment, running over people it could've been. There really was only one possibility, laughable as it was.

"You're talking about Wes, right? Wes Weston?" He snorted loudly, stamping down his laughter. "Dude, you're joking, right? Everyone knows he's a nutcase. Have you checked out his evidence, or did you just believe whatever he told you? Not notice him, Jesus. It would be hard to miss him."

Masters paused, staring at Danny with narrowed eyes. "You _did_ notice him, then?"

"Yeah, definitely." Danny chuckled a little, shaking his head. "Kind of hard not to when he keeps screaming in my face all about his newest theories, explaining why I'm a ghost and stuff. Everybody in the school knows that Wes is a crazy conspiracy theorist."

The man blinked at him, a little dumbly. "You are not…?"

"Nope. I'm all human, just a goth." Danny shrugged, as much as he could with the ropes around him. "I mean, I interned at the GIW. If I _had_ been a ghost, they would've figured me out ages ago."

"Hmph. Like it would be hard to trick those idiots." Masters shook his head, walking away from Danny. He wasn't sure whether he should feel glad about that, or if he should dread whatever was coming next. "You can't trick _me_ that easily, boy."

"Oh, come on!" Danny pulled his leg in just a little closer. Almost there, almost there… "What could I possibly do to convince you that I'm not the ghost?"

Masters had stopped in front of one of the tables, but it was too far away from Danny to see what was on it. Considered the man's interest, he doubted it was empty. "Very little, my boy, considering that you're lying to my face."

Then he turned around, holding a wicked-looking invention. "Oh, but no worries. I don't plan on using this on you."

"Oh, good," Danny said, his fingers finally making contact with the tube of weaponized lipstick in his boot. "That would really suck."

"Yes, indeed," Masters airily agreed, shifting the weapon so he held it in one hand. The other, he put to his lips, whistling loudly. "Oh, Daniel! Come help your dear old dad, would you?"

"Ah." He hooked a finger under the lipstick, pulling it up high enough to grasp. "Funny, your son has the same name as me."

Masters turned back to face him, a slimy smile spreading on his face. "Yes," he said slowly. "What a funny coincidence."

A door swung open, revealing a teenager Danny's age. And not just his age, really. The boy looked identical to Danny. Hell, even his hair was spiked the same way.

Perhaps he should've paid a little more attention when Masters mentioned cloning earlier in the conversation.

"Daniel Fenton," the man in question said, turning back to Danny, "meet Daniel Masters. Daniel, would be so kind as to lend me a helping hand?"

Masters held up the weapon, and Danny's clone nodded, walking over to accept the item. It was like looking in a mirror, if mirror images usually held terrifying weapons that they threatened to use on you.

Fuck waiting to escape unnoticed, he really needed out of these ropes _now_. Danny grabbed hold of the laser lipstick properly, pushing off the cap inside his boot. The moment he pulled it out they would see. He needed to use it immediately, before they could stop him.

Daniel stepped forward, the weapon held out towards Danny. Danny jerked his arm upwards, thumb on the 'on' button for the lipstick.

An explosion sounded, the whole lab suddenly covered in a dense cloud of dust.

Well, the moment wasn't getting any better, was it? Danny quickly used the laser to slice through the ropes. If there was a moment to be glad that his parents build their weapons to only hurt ghosts, this was the one.

He scrambled away from the chair, ducking behind a table as the dust cleared. Masters had been knocked off of his feet, and was just standing back up, his suit brown with dust. Daniel, the clone, whatever, had stepped away from the impact site, but seemed fine, if confused. He held the weapon up defensively.

In the side of the lab, a huge hole was blown. The Specter Speeder laid at an awkward angle, no longer hovering as usual. A deep dent laid in the front, and a crack ran through the windscreen. Sam, behind the steering wheel, looking viscous. Tucker, right next to her, didn't look much more pleased.

Knowing that the two Masters' had their backs turned to him, Danny raised a hand above the table, waving to catch the attention of both of his friends. Tucker immediately phased through the Speeder, two strong beats of his tail carrying him into the center of the room.

"Who the fuck do you think you are, huh?" he asked of Vlad, ignoring the clone, who seemed to be too confused to act. "Stealing my best fucking friend from underneath my nose. What the hell do you think you were doing, huh?"

"He thought I was a ghost!" Danny called to Tucker, getting up now that he knew he wasn't in immediate danger anymore. The three of them beat Pariah Dark. A creepy millionaire and a fucked-up clone were a piece of cake compared to that. "He was upset because his clone turned out fully human!"

"That's fucked up!" Sam immediately shouted back, clambering out of the Speeder. "Is that why this guy is here? Because fuckhead over there wanted a Danny of his own?"

"Oh, butter biscuits," Masters… cursed? Yeah, cursed, apparently, his gaze locked on Tucker.

"Yeah, I'll butter _your_ biscuits," Tucker growled, leaning in closer to the man, baring his sharp teeth. "That'll teach you to mess with people. Fucking creep."

"Speaking of creepy…" The clone dropped his weapon with a clatter, turning to watch Tucker and Masters. "He wanted to use Danny to convince his mom to leave his dad, and marry Vlad instead. Right, _dad_?"

Tucker's eyes narrowed even further, growing so bright that the gold was reflected in Masters' face. "Is that true?"

"Um," Masters said.

"Yes!" both Danny and his clone chorused.

"Say no more." And Tucker wound back his fist, then cracked it down onto Masters' face. The man crumpled like a sack of potatoes, out cold.

"Jesus, Tuck." Danny dug the cap for his laser lipstick out of his boot, clicking it shut again. "You didn't hit him _too_ hard, did you?"

"Not as hard as he deserved." Tucker huffed, then shook his head. "Nah, he's just out cold. I could've done far worse."

"Right, right." He stuck the lipstick back into his boot, glad that he had asked his parents for such a simple weapon. "Time to head back home then, get the actual government to deal with him."

"Sounds like a plan," Sam agreed, climbing back into the driver's seat. Her eyes darted over to the clone, who remained in the middle of the room, staring at Masters' knocked out body. "Uh…"

Danny stopped in front of the Speeder, turning around to face the clone too. "Hey, Daniel, you coming?"

"Huh?" The clone looked up, startled, meeting his eyes. "What? Where?"

"My place, of course. My parents would love to take you in, show you what a _real_ parent looks like. If you want, of course, no pressure."

"Um." Daniel glanced back at Masters, then back at Danny. "You know what? Sure, why the hell not."

* * *

"Of course, that was before she started going by Danielle," Tucker commented idly, tracking Dani's path through the crowd below. "She really came into herself, away from Vlad."

"Right? Good for her, though." Sam's fingers rattled on the railing once more. "Can you blame her, though? Vlad would've stomped out any individualistic desires she might've had."

"I'm so glad he went to jail." Danny breathed out a heavy sigh. "Like, what a fucking creep. I love Dani, she's my sister, but by god, if Vlad so much as _dares_ to look at her wrong."

"Easy, easy." Tucker put a hand against Danny's chest, like he was restraining a wild animal. "We know, man. He would be crazy to unleash the fury of the entire Fenton clan. I mean, Valerie alone will snap his neck if he tries to hurt Dani again."

"True, true." Danny settled down again, and Tucker dropped his hand. "I'm glad those two got together. It felt so… mean, when we hooked up, and she got left out."

"She was just waiting for her own perfect Fenton," Sam joked, a fond smile on her face. "Really, though, getting together… that was nice."

* * *

She wasn't jealous. Really, she wasn't. No one could accuse her of such a thing.

It was just…

Dash wasn't the right one for Danny. That was all. They had no shared interests, no mutual friends, no anything.

So, no. She wasn't jealous. She wanted Danny to be happy, and he wouldn't be happy with Dash.

That's what she told herself when she felt happy to hear that Danny and Dash had broken up. She wasn't happy because they broke up, because she had a chance now. She was happy because she was _right_. That was all.

She wasn't going to act on this stupid crush anyway. She and Danny had been friends their whole lives. She wouldn't let a crush ruin that. She would just have to be happy with what she had.

And she was! She was very happy. Definitely. She loved both of her friends, really, crush or not.

"Sam, I…" Danny rubbed the back of his neck, clearly nervous, and she wasn't sure if her heart had stopped, or had started beating thrice as hard as usual. "I… love you."

She laughed, pitched strangely with nerves. "I love you too, silly. We're best friends."

Danny looked up from the ground, a pained look in his eyes.

"Oh," she said.

She stepped forward, wrapped an arm around his neck, and gently pulled him closer.

They kissed.

She supposed that maybe she _was_ going to act on this crush. This _mutual_ crush, apparently.

They had been together for barely a month when Danny said, carefully, "I don't know, Sam. This feels… wrong."

She licked her lips. She nodded.

"I know."

The next time they saw Tucker, an occasion that had grown more rare over the month the two of them had been together, they both pressed a kiss to the ghost's cheeks. He flushed, a strange green tinge on dark skin, his finned ears perking up.

"What?" the boy asked, startled, as the two of them wrapped arms around him. "I thought you two were-"

"It's not the same without you," Danny said, softly.

Sam supposed she really _did_ love both of her best friends equally.

"Oh." Tucker slumped in on himself, darting uncertain looks between the two of them. "But isn't this… weird?"

Danny snorted loudly, and Sam cracked a laugh.

"Yeah, fair enough," Tucker agreed, a smile on his face. "That's pretty gay though, dude."

Sam started giggling, and Danny laughed even louder than before.

"Dude," he said between cackles, "it's not gay if you're dead."

* * *

"And we _almost_ got away with it, too!" Sam giggled, the heels of her shoes beating against the banister. "If it wasn't for your meddling sister!"

"Oh, don't blame _me_!" Danny huffed, playfully, crossing his arms. "Blame Jazz!"

* * *

The Speeder came to a halt in the parking lot, parked almost perfectly in an empty slot.

"Stupid parking spaces aren't big enough," Sam grumbled as she got out of the driver's seat. "Couldn't your parents have built it just a smidgen narrower?"

"Probably." Danny shrugged as he got out of the other chair, running a hand through his hair. "You have the tracker, right? I don't want to get caught snooping around aimlessly."

"Chill, I've got it." Sam patted her pocket reassuringly. "Besides, it's a college. They deal with things far worse than two high school students creeping through the hallways during the middle of the day."

"Oh, shut up. Let's just go find Tucker before he gets hurt."

They found their way to the dorms quickly, sneaking inside when some other students left. They came to a stop in front of Jazz' room. Or, well, Danny assumed it was Jazz' room. Tucker was there, at least, trapped inside a Thermos.

"Are you sure she'll be gone?" Sam asked, stuffing the tracker back into her pocket to free her hands. "She won't be happy to find us breaking in, I bet."

"That's what she gets for stealing our boyfriend." Danny rolled his eyes at her glare. "Yes, Sam. You know Jazz. Do you really think she would miss class? It's the middle of the fucking day, that's why we went _now_."

"Right, right. On three?"

"On three," Danny agreed, readying a heavily-booted foot.

"One," Sam counted.

"Two," Danny followed.

"Three!" they shouted in unison, as Danny forcefully kicked the door open.

A high-pitched scream sounded from inside the room, followed up by the sound of something—or someone—falling.

"Right, roommates," Sam commented dryly.

"Nah, I would recognize that scream anywhere." Danny stepped into the apartment, and Sam was quick to follow him. "Jazz, why the fuck aren't you in class?"

Jazz's head popped up from behind a table, her hair messed up. "Why aren't _you_, Danny?"

"Had to do a cool rescue mission to come save my boyfriend." Danny held out a hand in her direction, beckoning. "Hand him over, Jazz."

"Why?" she asked skeptically, eyes darting between him and Sam. "How do I know he's not manipulating you two?"

Sam snorted. "For real? Even your parents were less skeptical of us. There's nothing weird going on here, Jazz."

Danny raised an eyebrow at her.

"Nothing especially weird," Sam corrected with a shrug. "I suppose that a trio between two humans and a ghost is a _little_ weird."

"He's not…?"

"No, Jazz, Jesus." Danny blew out a noisy breath, dropping his hand. "We're just genuinely dating, okay? I don't need you nosing into my business, anyway. I'm sixteen, not a child."

"Sixteen _is_ a child, Danny," she chastised, but she shook her head and walked to the kitchen cupboards. "But I suppose you're right. It's important for your development to let you make choices on your own."

"_Thank you_." While Jazz was distracted, he made a face at Sam, who giggled quietly. "But really, Jazz, couldn't you listen to our parents' opinion for once? They made a good call this time."

"I make a habit not to listen too intently," she admittedly airily, pulling the Thermos out of a tall cupboard. Damn her, she actually hid that thing too high for him. Stupid older sister. "Not everyone is into ghosts as much as you, Danny."

She paused, one hand on the Thermos' lid. "Literally, in this case."

"Alright, alright, enough Danny-shaming," he bit at her, making impatient motions at her. "Please release our boyfriend from the ghost hunting device now."

The Thermos released its contents with a whirr and a vortex of blue light. Tucker tumbled over himself, thudding onto the apartment floor, tail fin splayed out wide.

"Thanks," Danny said flatly. "We'll get out of your hair now."

"Right." Jazz looked down at Tucker, then her Thermos, then quickly capped it again. "Uh. Sorry. This is gonna make our family meetings really awkward from now on, huh?"

Tucker laughed, pushing himself upright. "That, or it'll be a really funny anecdote."

Jazz smiled back at him. "You know what? I think I would be fine with that."

* * *

"Speaking of that anecdote…" Danny leaned over the railing, pointing at Jazz. "Should be go mingle now? It'll be another hour or so before the kids arrive, right? Plenty of time for people to get over the shock."

"Danny," Sam said with a chastising tone. "An hour is _not_ long enough to wean people to our presence."

"Well, we're not getting our time back, are we?" He pushed himself off of the railing, floating over the crowd, tail slowly shifting through the air. He ran his hands through his messy hair, mussing up the white locks even further. "Best time to get started was three hours ago. Second best time is right now."

"I hate it when you use quotes against me," Sam grumbled, lifting her leg over the banister. "Give me a moment to shift back to default obsession."

"You two are the worst," Tucker grumbled, without heat. "I can't believe that I was gonna use my Ghost King powers to make sure you came back as ghosts."

Danny laughed, loudly, drawing the attention from a few of the people below them. "You didn't get a choice, anyway! No getting rid of us now, Tuck."

"Yeah, no kidding." He shook his head, pushing himself over the railing, floating over to Danny. "That would've gotten boring, anyway. What kind of losers die at seventeen years old, anyway?"

"You don't get to talk," Sam commented, as a flash denoted her appearance shift. "You died when you were, like, seven. We made it a full decade longer."

"Ah, details." Tucker swatted his tail fin at her. "Now shut up and join us. We gotta go socialize."

"Scare the pants off of some innocent family members," Danny joyfully agreed, his tail making short but quick motions. "Ghosts, am I right?"

* * *

I didn't manage to cram it in there at the end, but Danny and Sam died at the same time. A fire broke out in their high school, and they went back inside, making sure everyone got out safely. Everyone did, except for the two of them. Tucker was gonna use his Ghost King powers to make sure they came back, but they already shared the throne, Danny and Sam just wouldn't get access to it until they died/became ghosts.

Also someone stop me from giving Sam a cat every time I write her for a crossover, please.


End file.
